Naomi Watts Will Star in the ‘Game of Thrones’ Prequel Series

Game of Thrones may be coming to an end after its upcoming eighth season, but the game is just beginning. Or technically it hasn’t even begun yet. (These prequels get confusing, man.)

So yes, HBO is planning to extend its hugely popular fantasy series by dipping into its past, with a prequel that will take place “thousands of years” before the events chronicled on the current show. And according to Variety, the star of the prequel’s pilot will be a huge star and an Academy Award nominees: Naomi Watts.

She will reportedly play “a charismatic socialite hiding a dark secret” in the story being developed by Jane Goldman with Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin:

Goldman’s project chronicles the world’s descent from the golden Age of Heroes into its darkest hour. And only one thing is for sure: from the horrifying secrets of Westeros’ history to the true origin of the white walkers, the mysteries of the East to the Starks of legend–it’s not the story we think we know.

Watts has been doing more television work of late; she appeared in the revival of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks as well as Netflix’s television version of Gypsy. And of course her big break originally started life as a television series: Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, which was initially conceived as a series for ABC. When they didn’t pick up the pilot, Lynch turned the material into a film, which became a huge cult smash, launching Watts’ Hollywood career. I know in this case it’s not TV, it’s HBO, but this all still seems like relevant information about this very exciting project